Zen and the Art of Meat
by Dekord
Summary: With a violent explosion, Krieg arrives in Grass Country in the middle of the Third Shinobi War. Seperated from his only real purpose, the former Vault Hunter's inner voice attempts to preserve his morality and independence in a world where violence is not the only tool of war.
1. KRIEG!

Night time held the Elemental Nations captive, and a small spring rain drizzled on the overbearing tree cover as a reconnaissance team from the Village Hidden in the Leaves crossed the border into Grass Country. Their objective was to gather intelligence of ever changing enemy outposts in the region. As they attempted to sneak past a small invading force of Iwa ninja the Hyuuga had detected so they could send one ninja back to warn the nearest Konoha outposts ahead of the impending threat, one inexperienced chuunin accidently stopped suppressing his chakra for a second too long.

The more experienced ninja in the group- those with the reflexes to jump away- could only watch as a supremely controlled wave of dirt and soil deftly squashed the other half. The leader of the party quickly went through the handsigns for a cloaking genjutsu, but it meant little to the tracker sent with the Iwa team to pick up stragglers. Unable to reach the border or any friendly reinforcements for miles, the retreating Konoha team had to make the decision for a last stand on a higher grove of trees. Using the precious few seconds of lead that the invisibility jutsu had gotten them, they set up a small ambush that actually managed to snag two young chuunin who broke rank in order to arrive at the enemy location first.

Out of the smoke of the exploding tags the rest of the Iwa ninja arrived, and the fighting began in earnest. It began with a simple ninjutsu exchange that ended with some injuries on the part of the Konoha ninja, fireballs, kunai and a small stream of lightning ineffectually combating a hail of rocks and senbon from the Iwa ninja. Even as the Iwa taijutsu specialists began to close the distance in order to fully utilize their art against the unprepared for open combat, some sort of divine intervention occurred.

A giant blast of purple blew open the ground under the combatants' feet, effectively causing an involuntary ceasefire. Konoha and Iwa ninja alike were thrown back from the explosion, ending the lives of the taijutsu specialists who happened to be directly in the blast radius.

A strange figure now lay within the crater that still held the mangled body parts of the unfortunate Iwa nin. A monster of a man clad in orange pants with metal gauntlets and a weapon of a strange design. Some sort of gas mask adorned his face, one of the eyeholes plugged in by rubber. The weapon looked akin to an axe, but the business end was circular with sharp ends pointing out. Tied to the weapon was unmistakably dynamite.

Guided by surprise and fear, ninja from both sides flung jutsu at the bloodied, stirring figure in the crater. Large bloody holes appeared in the body of the man, eliciting mad laughter from him. Screaming a nonsensical stream of words, he charged at the outnumbering Iwa ninja side. An unspoken truce passed between the ninja present, veterans and newer ninja alike feeling the maniacal bloodlust the hulking figure had brought to bear. They would fight together to put this monster down.

The closest Iwa chuunin on the ground, however, was among those paralyzed by fear. The strange man's weapon cleaved him in two before he could react, and he exploded in blood- catching those nearby and unprepared for it. That started a chain reaction, those killed by the explosions also exploding. The veteran ninja not paralyzed from the display managed to jump back from the explosions before they too were consumed. The trees that they were standing on, however, weren't so lucky.

While the first shock had paralyzed the less experienced of the ninja, the second dose of horror convinced even those hardened by battle to break rank and flee: the wounds the man had just sustained from the ninjutsu and weapons flung at him initially simply closed. Traveling by trees gave little respite as battle-scarred veterans of previous Shinobi Wars began to flee in any direction they could, pursued by exploding flying axes and the delighted laughter of a madman.

* * *

It did not take long for Krieg's original personality to awaken. Whatever had happened had knocked him out for a little while- enough time, apparently, for the bloodthirsty psychopath in him to take control and leave a gruesome crater full of gruesomely dismembered corpses. He sighed inwardly. At least there were signs that the killed enemies were indeed combatants, such as the odd weapons strewn about.

What had happened? He remembered all that had happened in his quest to open the vault of Ares, and the significant reduction in local bandit population he had enacted. His memory extended to the part where he was about to open the vault with his party, and to a dramatic fight with the alien creature inside. He… had won that fight, hadn't he?

He had, he was sure of it. He remembered his dominant personality being sated by the flow of blood that flowed from the great beast after the kill. The vault had definitely contained something else, as well: he had approached… something that fell from the beast. After that, he drew a blank.

What happened? The weapons lying on the ground were primitive- swords, needles, and oddly shaped daggers- but so was the buzz axe he wielded. Strangely, however, there were no gun parts lying around. Unless he had just slaughtered a clan of some VERY strange psychos, there should definitely have been gun parts. Hell, wasn't he supposed to be wielding a gun as well? What had happened to all of his hard-earned weaponry? His shield, his relic?

There weren't any trees on Ares, as far as he knew. The flora around him lacked the distinctive look of Ares flora, too. This planet was not Ares. The Eridium must have teleported him off of the planet- that was a first. Must have been an enormous amount of Eridium. He was extremely lucky to have been teleported to a planet with a livable atmosphere as opposed to say, deep space, but he was still royally screwed if this planet did not have any spacecraft on it. So what was his other half doing right now?

The dominant personality was, unsurprisingly, currently busy examining his handiwork. He beat one torn off arm against another, each movement spraying more blood in every direction. Not properly enthused with the idea of continuing this activity, Krieg's original personality attempted to talk to himself.

"(Hey, what happened while I was out?)" he asked.

"Don't you dare interrupt my time with the former filthy flesh fruit. They gave me all of their beautiful pain and screamed in my soul and now I need to remember and feel all of the blood again," was the response he got.

"(Were they deserving?)"

"Oh, yes, yes YES! They sent me all of their power tools and I felt their sting drill into me and the flies began to eat my meat chunks and I KILLED THEM. Except they RAN, I didn't get to feel it all. They wouldn't give me all of it."

"(…Forget it. How about you get moving so we can find out where we are? We can find more of the deserving and kill them, if you like.)"

"STOP IT! STOP IT! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU!"

And with that, Krieg stabbed his buzz axe into his face, dropped one of the arms and picked up half of a skull instead. His inner voice sighed and bided his time.

* * *

The Sandaime found the reports of what happened at the Kusa border slightly disconcerting, even though he barely had time to look at them between the long, drawn out meetings with his military commanders about troop movements and assigning missions and dealing with civilian complaints and meeting with ambassadors from small countries and the myriad of other responsibilities that came with being Hokage, especially during wartime.

But he digressed. The only teleportation jutsu he knew of period was young Minato's Hiraishin, and he had lived a very long time. Whatever it was that had attacked his ninja apparently had one, along with strange explosive and regenerative jutsus. He might or might not have the manpower to deal with this potentially S-rank threat while fighting a war with Iwagakure, and he couldn't let this psychopath rampage that close to Fire Country's borders. Perhaps he could be used against the enemy?

The man certainly seemed to be bestial, and he had ninja among his fighting force that could potentially lead him along while staying at enough of a range that the man's improbable accuracy with his strange weapon would be an avoidable threat. Of course, he also wanted a ninja that could disappear from the maniac's radar long enough for him to find Iwa nin. And for that, of course, there was only one soldier. He would have to be separated from his team for the duration of the mission, but another jounin could assume provisional responsibilities as the sensei of team Minato.

The Sandaime made a handseal and an ANBU operative uncloaked in front of the Hokage.

"Find Namikaze Minato. Tell him to meet me in my office."

* * *

Minato, meanwhile, was busy training Taijutsu with his close friend and secret girlfriend, Kushina Uzumaki. The spar was intense- both of them were intensely focused and traded blows fairly equally. Minato appeared to have a slight upper hand, to be sure, but not one that terribly unbalanced the fight.

After some back-and-forth, Minato landed a solid punch on his lover. She slid a few feet back and wiped some blood off of her lip, smiling to let her partner know she was alright. She then charged right back into the fray. Minato was visibly slowing down- they HAD been practicing for a rather long time, to be sure- and she wouldn't have any real problems in getting him back for that one.

Kushina was proved right in the next few moments as Minato took a solid hit to the ribcage, making him reflexively bend forward to his left, right into Kushina's next hook that sent him sprawling to the ground. Standing over him with a wicked smile, Kushina teased, "Had enough for today, honey?"

Minato laughed as he rubbed the bruised spot on his face.

"Yeah, I think that may be enough. You win. Want to go get some dango?"

"The food's on you, loser."

"I know, I know," Minato replied with a smile as Kushina helped him up. He rubbed the back of his head with his left arm.

"Maybe hit a little less hard next time?"

"Depends on how good the dango is," Kushina said, laughing.

Unfortunately, their (romantic) excursion to the dango stand was interrupted by the appearance of an ANBU operative that materialized in front of them.

"Minato-san, Hokage-sama requests your presence at his office for a mission."

Minato sighed internally. He really did not like to leave Kushina, especially before a dinner together. He was likely going into a warzone- he knew she would worry about him. She looked into his eyes.

"We'll have our meal when you get back, and you're still paying. Just… be careful, all right? There's a war out there."

Minato nodded wordlessly and Hiraishin'ed into the Hokage's office the next moment. It was time to do a mission- someone else would have to watch his team for the time being.

* * *

Four days later, the Minato was in a tree, observing the clearly insane target as he drank blood from a cooling corpse. It had been rather easy to find the target- the behemoth reeked of blood and inexplicably left a trail of witnesses along the way. Minato couldn't quite understand why he stayed his hands for the innocent, considering he was more bloodthirsty than any other individual the ninja had ever met and his abilities WERE uniquely suited to slaughtering masses. He was hardly worthy of the title of ninja- the man relied on his strange-looking axe almost exclusively, cutting down ninja and bandits who happened to cross his path. He hadn't made hand signs, but he had breathed fire seallessly.

Minato had never seen a jutsu that literally blew up a human's body when they died, nor one that seemed to absorb the life force of victims like that. Perhaps the axe was some sort of legendary chakra weapon? He hadn't heard of any weapon with those properties. It kept re-appearing in his hands after he threw it, for goodness's sake! The psychopath had yet to repeat his teleportation jutsu, so he couldn't analyze it in comparison with his own. He did assume that it was a non-combat jutsu, though, since had yet to utilize it. It could also be someone else's jutsu, teleporting him away in an attempt to escape.

He resisted disarming attempts (would those matter, if he could make his axe reappear in his hands?) and overwhelmed unprepared chuunin and lower level jounin with ease using that axe, meaning he was definitely A rank, if not S rank- Minato knew he could probably beat him since the man fought like a wild animal and he had the Hiraishin, but it would be a very long fight unless he managed to nick an artery. Then again, would that even kill him? He took far more punishment than any normal human should be capable of. Oh, well, decapitation would work.

There was no doubt about his insanity. The bloodlust should have been enough, but the man would constantly _hit himself in the face with his own weapon mid-combat._ It didn't even seem to matter that he did so, continuing on and putting it in someone else's flesh next. All in all, it was rather… unsanitary.

So who actually WAS this man? His attire was strange, some sort of unfamiliar white mask with baggy orange pants and off metal gauntlets. No ninja fought like that, either- perhaps he was from beyond the Elemental Nations. Perhaps he wasn't even human.

There had been a recent skirmish nearby- nobody had come to retrieve the bodies yet. Looters had immediately flooded the scene- usually these were civilians from nearby villages made poor from proximity to the war, but they seemed to be bandits made poor from the civilians' poverty in this particular case. The man, by intention or happenstance, was headed in that direction, so Minato followed.

What followed suit when he reached the site was fairly predictable- the bandits, confident in their numbers and made desperate by need, put on a brave face.

"This is our loot, punk! Back off!"

"DON'T CRY WHEN I PULL YOUR LUNGS OUT THROUGH YOUR CHEST!"

"Kill him!"

And then it was over as soon as the strange axe hit soft flesh, the most of the looters dying in an explosive chain reaction and the rest being pursued by more axes. This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. Minato had killed before, and knew the horrors of war- he was nevertheless rather disgusted with the flagrant display of mindless cruelty.

He could probably kill the man right now, actually- he was still distracted in his pursuit of the bandits. A simple kunai to the throat would more likely than not end his life then and there.

Minato sighed inwardly. Orders were orders, and he had to try to make the target Iwa's problem first. The psychopath appeared to have finished his murdering streak, and Minato had already prepared his Hiraishin kunai in the path that he would lead the target. Although Minato was almost sure that it would not work, he decided to open conversation to try and talk him into leaving.

"Hey, efficient handling of those looters there," Minato began. "I'm Minato Namikaze, jounin of Konohagakure. Who are you and how did you get here?"

Minato tensed when he saw the man's weapon rise, but it went down a second later as a surprisingly sane, quieter voice spoke. The ninja-turned-diplomat had to strain just to hear him.

"(Don't kill him! He doesn't look he's attacking you!)"

Then his voice returned to normal. "I AM KRIEG THE PSYCHO! AND MY SPLEEN ABSORBS THE PAIN TRAIN LIKE A GOOD SPONGE!"

"(Don't tell him that! We might have a new ally! Remember what that was like? Axton? Maya?)"

"GRAAH! STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!"

Minato observed this exchange with a growing wariness as Krieg, as apparently his name was, hit himself in the face with his bladed weapon. It was clear he was not going to get any results attempting to explain that they were in the middle of a war. The man sounded like he had more than one person in his body- perhaps he could appeal to the saner side to leave Grass Country for Earth Country?

"Look, Krieg, or whoever is in there- I need you to leave, alright? Can you head in that direction for me?" Minato made calming gestures with his body language as he said this, hoping that the apparently dominant personality would calm down enough for the other to listen.

Krieg licked his lips. "Will there be more little pulsing meatbags for me? MY AXE IS THRISTY!"

"Yes, yes, there will be… plenty of people for you." Minato felt a little bit sick. "I can show you where there are plenty of enemies."

"SHOW ME!"

"Put your axe away. I can teleport you there." Minato was hesitant, of course, to get close enough to Krieg to use the Hiraishin on him, but the alternative was spending FAR too much time in the company of a bloodthirsty psychopath in hostile territory. As Krieg complied, Minato was on full alert and readied his reflexes in case Krieg decided to turn on him.

Much to his relief, Krieg merely stood still during the teleportation.

"That was weird…" he commented.

Minato directed him to the Iwa nin outpost nearby. This appeared to have a higher level jounin as a squad leader, one that could possibly adapt to Krieg's fighting style long enough to try and combat him.

"There… see that camp over there? There is where your targets are. Anyone wearing the same headband of them is who you need to kill. Avoid killing those with the same one as mine. We are the good guys."

Krieg's saner voice piped up for a moment.

"(You're just making me fight for your side of some kind of war, aren't you? What makes you any better than them?)"

Minato hesitated a moment before answering.

"We are fighting to uphold our ideals. They of Iwa are fighting a war of aggression, and we need to protect our own. If you help us, perhaps Konohagakure will have a place for you."

Minato definitely felt sick saying that. He had to embellish there; after all, the man was an outsider and was far too murderous to be taught the Will of Fire. That wasn't the problem, though: he had just offered a clearly insane and bloodthirsty psychopath asylum in Konoha. It wasn't under his authority, granted. He could even perhaps be directed as a bounty hunter for Konoha under close supervision. But his morals still rebuked under the thought of helping someone so… evil.

Maybe he wasn't all bad, though. His inner voice did seem to ask if those people were "deserving." Perhaps there was some sort of "angel of justice" thing going on in his head? Regardless, the man was unstable and needed to be institutionalized. If he did seek Konoha after the war, perhaps that's what Minato would petition to offer. He wouldn't have technically lied in offering him a place, then.

He needed to stay and watch this fight. He didn't know the extent of Krieg's abilities and perhaps a more prepared upper level jounin would give him enough of a challenge in order to showcase them.

* * *

The jounin in question was a specialist in Earth ninjutsu. When one of her team members- one of the four chuunin assigned to her guidance- alerted her to the presence of an approaching figure, he told his team:

"Approaching figure at 6 o'clock."

The composite team of genin, chuunin, and one jounin knew their orders. Any non Iwagakure individuals within detection range were to be killed on sight. This was no Iwa ninja, and he had to die. The outpost was fairly close to the front line, after all.

One of the chuunin, the genjutsu specialist of the team, cast a small on Krieg as he entered combat. It affected his perception of the world to the extent that the Iwa nin and their attacks appeared slightly to the left of where they actually were. A penetrating spear of rock (courtesy of the Earth Lance technique) greeted Krieg in the side along with a hail of kunai. Full of projectiles, Krieg laughed off the giant piece of rock stuck directly where his lung should be and charged the surprised taijutsu specialists that had only dashed forth a short distance before assuming him dead from his wounds.

And Krieg started missing his swings. He couldn't accurately tell where the actual combatants where because of the genjutsu, which made him more angry and confused. The fight lasted a few seconds before a kenjutsu student managed to stab him in the side, and the jounin, coated in Earth Armor, had snuck up behind him and stabbed him in an artery.

The jounin began to give orders.

"Matsu, Benkei, pick up the corpse and-"

She was interrupted by a bestial roar from Krieg, as the projectiles and weapons stuck in him clattered to the ground, his wounds closing. Even more alarmingly, his right hand grew humongous and his left shriveled while his back hunched over. In the surprise of the transformation, Krieg snagged one of the nearby Genin with his axe, creating an explosion of blood that tagged and exploded the other four taijutsu specialists that had charged him. The jounin managed to jump back.

The jounin had expected casualties if there was combat, of course, but not from a single unknown man wandering into the outpost. She felt a twing of regret, then squashed it. She had to kill her emotions for country right now once again.

"What the hell is that?!" exclaimed the genjutsu specialist, voicing what was on the minds of others. "Who the hell ARE you?!"

He felt the genjutsu having been broken by the extreme pain the enemy must have been in. He prepared to re cast it, but was interrupted by his head exploding in a fine red mist courtesy to a passing buzz axe. The jounin, recovering from her shock, sent Krieg flying a few feet with the Earth Dragon Technique. It fazed him none and the continued barrage of weapons from the one remaining chuunin and the surviving genin was shrugged off with little effort.

Krieg charged the ranged attackers and the jounin, still in her Earth Armor, went to intercept him while dual wielding kunais. The kunais broke almost instantly against the force of Krieg's axe swing and pierced through her Earth armor, cutting into the bone a bit. She stumbled for a moment, expecting the end with another lightning fast swing of the strange axe, but the man had taken a second to… hit himself in the face with it?

Realizing she would probably die in close range combat, she managed to jump back just as Krieg came to. She created a few Earth clones. She would have to entomb this man to kill him.

Meanwhile, the genin were keeping busy. The chuunin was a weapon specialist, continuing to rain down projectiles at the strange monster in hopes of slowing him down long enough for the jounin to kill him. The genin were mostly paralyzed and almost breaking down from the sight of the blood and the heavy feeling of killing intent emanating from the enemy. They were young and had not seen battle yet; that would likely be their downfall.

The Earth clones went in to engage Krieg, while the jounin herself stayed back and casted a small genjutsu on Krieg. This would slow down his reflexes directly, meaning it would be easy enough to create an opening for to-

There! Krieg had decided to hit himself in the face again, so one of her clones jumped onto him and dissolved into mud. While he was ensnared by that, the jounin prepared her Bedrock Coffin technique to end the fight. She watched the enemy's transformation recede while the walls closed in.

Minato, still observing the battle, frowned. Was that all that Krieg had to offer? He had clearly taken control of the skirmish he had entered in with the element of surprise, as whatever teleportation technique was used had instilled fear in the ninja. But still, he had expected more from the man. Despite himself, he was disappointed that Krieg had died so easily. He couldn't even place why.

Regardless, it was time to report back to the Hokage before he was detected. Minato activated his Hiraishin seal next to the front of the Hokage tower and walked in to give his report. His team would see him soon.

* * *

As Minato left, a roar had erupted from the slabs of Earth Krieg had been smashed between. The ground shattered in a massive explosion as Krieg threw his exploding buzz axes in an effort to escape. The jounin grimaced. What did it actually take to kill this… thing?

That Bedrock Coffin technique was fairly chakra intensive, and she felt she only had a few good moves in her before chakra exhaustion. Still, she had a chance to come out on top and she would take it. The genin, she noted, had already begun to creep away from the battlefield. The single chuunin had not even changed tactics.

"Everyone, run and tell Iwa to send any available reinforcements to the area. This is not your fight. I will stall it out as long as possible." The unspoken implication that she might not make it only lodged the need to run in the young genins' minds, and they happily complied.

So it was now her against this monster of a man. She renewed her Earth Armor and dodged a flying axe, her Earth Armor protecting her from the ensuing explosion. Like the last time, the axe inexplicably re-appeared in one piece in his hands. The jounin had never seen jutsu like this before.

She had to kill this man in one shot, else this transformation of his would save him again. The Bedrock Coffin was her go-to killer finisher move, but since that had failed she would try to revert to something else. She DID know some fire style- perhaps it was time to try that.

She jumped onto a tree from her foe's charge and axe swing, then prepared to unleash the Great Fireball technique that she had picked up from watching many a Uchiha she had killed perform it. It was one of Konoha's techniques, yes, but that didn't make it any less useful.

Armed with the knowledge that the man wouldn't even try to dodge, she unleashed the fireball. She was going to roast him alive.

The fireball hit, but didn't even stop him in his tracks. He came out burning and laughing.

"AHAHAHA! I FEEL THE FIRE OF YOUR HATE! CLEANSE MY SOUL SO I CAN WEAR YOURS!"

This was unreal. He not only survived the fire, but was now relishing being aflame? The man was about to throw his axe again, so the jounin jumped out of the tree, trying to hit the man's eyes with some kunai.

Unfortunately for her, Krieg moved to face her and they… nicked the side of his head before bouncing off and clattering to the ground. Her eyes widened for a split second before she noticed that a fireball of the man's own was pursuing her. She jumped away, preparing to delay the man's approach with another Earth Dragon- and then the fireball hit her and set her on fire.

Burning, she ran through the seals to renew her Earth Armor and in doing so took her attention off of Krieg for a split second. That was long enough for the psycho to lob another axe at her. She managed to dodge in the nick of time, but the explosion sent her flying. She didn't manage to recover fast enough to dodge the second axe, which lodged in her calf before exploding and scattering her body parts in several directions.

Krieg, still burning, took a moment to relish the carnage and the pleasant feeling of fire burning away his skin. It would go out in a few moments, but the feeling of burning was sensual to him.

His inner self took pleasure in the moment, despite himself. That had been a satisfying battle and he didn't even have to kill any of the very young children that were equipped with weapons. Who sent children out into battle that early? Perhaps Minato was right, and this side of the war was full of monsters.

Simple mindless slaughter of the enemy, though, did not sit well with him. He wished he could get himself a companion, one to more easily direct his dominant personality into constructive purposes- like what happened on Pandora and a couple of other planets. He wished Minato had not left, he would have been a suitable companion.

* * *

It had been a good day for Orochimaru. His experiments had been going along nicely- he had gotten one of his test subjects to survive an infusion of Senju DNA. Whether the subject could now use the bloodline had yet to be tested, but the depraved ninja had high hopes for the subject. After all, there was no reason he shouldn't be able to and if he was, then Orochimaru could perfect the procedure enough to possible use it on himself. Having the Wood Release bloodline would be terribly useful.

His "peers" in Konoha (he had no equal) had yet to catch on. Danzo and his former sensei had no clue what was going on, that he had started his experimentation on human subjects or that he had rescued Kabuto to be his research assistant. Fools, the lot of them. They would never approve of his research, yet one only had to look at what amazing results he was receiving to know that that they would lead to enormous power. Lives of the worthless were a small price to pay for such results. When he became the next Hokage, perhaps he could move to get DNA modifications done to all of his village's people. The world would fall under the combined might of a village so adept in Wood Release, and he, by then immortal, would rule the Elemental Nations with an iron fist… for eternity.

It was in this mood that he caught a purple glint of light emanating from one of the nearby shrubs. His instincts told him to examine the object. Halting his tree-hopping, he descended to investigate the emission.

Squatting down and moving aside the leaves obscuring the object, Orochimaru discovered a strange purple, shiny purple rock. When he picked it up, he discovered that it was metal, and rather cold. It felt… strange, somehow, and he poured a little bit of chakra into it.

The result was a flood of strange, foreign chakra directly into his body. Cold water ran through his veins, and a tingling began throughout his entire body. He began to experience a sort of high, as if the entire world was his already… it felt amazing. He had never experienced such power within himself, and he knew that none could oppose him with such reserves and might in this state. Truly, he was a force to be reckoned with..!

The high disappeared as instantly as it came on. Orochimaru felt a strong feeling of emptiness and longing, as if something he _needed_ to survive had been removed from him. He poured a greater amount of chakra into the metal this time, the same effects coming on but even stronger than before, for a longer period of time.

Orochimaru was already well and truly addicted to the feeling before a couple of minutes had passed. Konoha would have to wait, he _had_ to find more of this, to go back to the lab and find out exactly what it could do to him and to other humans…

He couldn't help himself.


	2. EVERYTHING IS FINE

Iwagakure's top prison wasn't the most well-funded to facilitate prisoner's comfort. It was made to house higher-ranking threats, and to prevent escape in the most efficient possible manners- therefore, it resembled a dungeon more than a regular jail. The entire complex was underground, with heavily reinforced walls and an array of chakra-sealing objects and methods in use that wholly prevented the escape of any normal ninjas. The prison also regularly commissioned specialty restrainers that stopped occupants with more unique powers that would help them break free. S-rank criminals and prisoners of war were rather difficult to stop, after all, and no expense was spared to keep them housed in. It was a matter of national security.

Given all of these measures, it cost Iwagakure a hefty upkeep cost to maintain per occupant- hence it's reservation for S-ranking shinobi. Only a few people were kept there at any one time, especially since execution was a more than viable solution for enemies of the state. Some of the restrained were political prisoners, needed to be kept alive for bargaining or other political purposes. Most of the jailers would like nothing more than to execute them. Others were there to be experimented on, and a scientific laboratory was a large part of the expenses to maintain the place. While splitting the two up into separate facilities would make sense, the centralized location allowed Iwa to make the place even more defended. So it was that Cell 0351 was a part of the latter, experimental half of the complex.

It resembled the other storage cells with little differences. The entire thing was well sterilized, and the chakra-reinforced walls were maintained in pristine condition with various scientific apparatuses sticking out of them. All of those were hooked up both to computers that were in the front of the cell that sent feedback to the computers in the main lab. Also contained within the chamber were chakra restraining seals that helped to keep the subject sedated. While in the cell, large chains were to be attached to the subject at all times. For operations, there was a transportable operating table to move the test subject over to the main operating room, and an exit for sedative gas to be filtered into the cell to temporarily replace the chains.

In this particular room Krieg had spent the better part of a week, fed through the tubes and poked and prodded by an entire team of scientists that wanted to find out exactly what was wrong with him, what allowed him his transformations and his healing and why his chakra was so strange.

Predictably, the dominant personality spent the time raging and babbling nonsense, as it did usually but with more intensity. There was little danger of it regressing any further, since it was already an insane, one-track mind. The original personality was the one suffering the most from the forcible detention.

He was already starting to feel the strain at the edges of his mind, and that was incredibly dangerous. If he went insane, then it was quite possible that Krieg would make the transition into a full monster. He didn't want to be like any other psycho. He would love to die before he started harming the innocent. Of course, suicide was not an option at all right now- his only freedom of movement was blinking, and maybe moving his mouth a little. Not even enough to breathe fire. Even if he was free, whatever the scientists placed on him here made him feel a lot weaker- he had enough energy to breathe, and that was about it.

He had tried pleading with them, to help him. They were not like the Hyperion scientists with their responses. The woman who had experimented on him was rather apologetic as she ruined his life- she did not want to be there. Handsome Jack had noticed her mind and forced her to participate in the experimentation, holding her loved ones hostage in order to enforce his will. These scientists were here of their own free will- they carried themselves with the sort of energy that most people do at their jobs. They looked at him with the same eyes Handsome Jack had looked at him with when he had visited Krieg's cell. Cold, calculating, seeing him as some sort of subhuman creature; it was infuriating.

He did not want to spend the rest of his life here, and he didn't want them to start experimenting in earnest. From what he could tell, they were only gathering preliminary results right now, seeing exactly how his metabolism and body worked. The more serious experimentation might start later, and the last time that happened Krieg was reduced to a secondary personality within his own mind- he couldn't let this happen. The thought triggered the rage he had long not allowed himself to feel in order to balance out his dominant personality.

Those scientists… they had to die. It didn't matter whether they were innocent otherwise, they restrained and were going to experiment on him again. They were using him as an object- Krieg WOULD NOT stand for that anymore. His pride, what little was left of it, would not be violated like this again. He had to escape, and he had to kill them. He had to bide his time. In the meantime, he would not show these sadists any of his pain; they would not receive the pleasure of hurting him.

He consoled himself with the thought that they were dead men anyway as gas filled the chamber and his mind drifted off again.

* * *

The test subject was highly irregular. He was highly resistant to pain when conscious, even with his chakra reduced. When conscious, extreme injuries, including poison, could trigger some sort of transformation that healed all of his injuries and extended his right arm while shrinking his left. It manifested some sort of extreme strength in the right arm, as well- his entire time had looked at it and they still had no idea how it worked or any method of replicating the effect.

If such a thing could be implemented into the Iwa shinobi forces, they would rather easily win the war with Konoha. As such, the head scientists had delegated a few of the scientists under his command to studying the causes and effects of the transformation. The rest of his team, meanwhile, would move on to test some of the subject's other purported abilities.

Lighting him on fire for this experiment was the easy part. Triggering the homing fireballs without sacrificing men was harder, but the head scientist had asked for an automatic kunai launcher to mount on the wall and he had received one. Nodding to the scientist that was at the computer for the test, he had the on-hand ninja perform a fire jutsu and then he pressed the button that activated the launcher. Visually, what happened next was rather predictable. The subject began burning, and the kunai, upon hitting him, triggered a fireball that that returned the fire to the launcher and broke it off of the wall.

The subject remained aflame until another ninja cast a water jutsu on him. The lead scientist walked over to the underling that was manning the computer.

"Any changes?" he asked.

"Sir, his body temperature shot up from the flame but his life signs remained unaffected. Nothing changed when the fireball was triggered."

The head scientist cursed (internally, of course). How was he supposed to make any progress when almost nothing changed medically or chakra-wise when these abilities triggered? They weren't jutsu, they weren't directly caused by his body- how WERE they caused? Magic? This didn't make any sense.

The subject's axe stopped reappearing in his hands after all of the technology was stripped from his body, but these abilities did not stop working. How? The tech team was supposed to have some results with the devices in a few days, so the head scientist retained a feeble, unprofessional hope that that would shed some light on the problem.

The way things were going, the subject's abilities would not be able to be replicated for the Iwakagure army and he would have failed his country, as well as missing out on a bonus and fame. It was unacceptable! He was a distinguished scientist; he couldn't let some brute's strange powers mystify him.

Sighing, he gestured for another one-off kunai launcher to be mounted on the pristine, chakra-reinforced wall. It was time for another trial.

* * *

Madara was quite old at this point, and he knew that. He had lived a large number of years at this point. For a very long time, he thought that the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan would grant him immortality- that was earlier, when he could still be considered a foolish young and later middle-aged man. The Rinnegan didn't appear to do so either. But his graying hair and weakening muscles attested to the fact that that was most definitely not the case. He was going to die soon, but he had already accomplished much. He needed a successor to enact his plans. Good thing he had found Obito.

The young Uchiha was still defiant to him right now, but he knew that would change with time. He had restored the entire right side of his body, after all. The youngster owed him his life and his career. Once Obito was truly under his wing, then the Eye Moon Plan he had drafted up would have a real chance of being completed. He also had a preliminary objective in mind for his young pupil...

He saw the battle in which that strange, bestial man had gotten captured by Iwagakure forces. He seemed to be extremely sensitive to genjutsu- that was his downfall when he encountered a genjutsu specialist jounin. It was a short battle, but Madara had seen exactly what the man could do without that field of jutsu hindering him. It would be rather easy to implant Sharingan suggestions in his mind, to make him immune to other genjutsu while putting him under the control of Madara. Such a powerful tool could be put into excellent combat use. Of course, he would have to be taken from Iwa's control, but that was trivial.

Soon… soon, his plans would come to fruition. Soon enough, anyway. He would not live to see them, most likely, but Obito could later resurrect him with the Edo Tensei. The world would be his.

Obito was going to come back to him to learn the ways of the Sharingan, he knew. So Madara decided to leave Obito with White Zetsu for the time being. For now, he still had considerable power- it was time to put that to use in perhaps manipulating a certain prisoner for his own ends…

* * *

Iwakagure was losing the war. Minato had solidified his reputation as the Yellow Flash, taking down a huge number of shinobi using the Hiraishin. However, he was separated from his team and lost one of his students while he was fighting. Uchiha Obito was dead, and this was their first meeting together since the mission. He didn't feel the need to announce what both his students already knew, so he simply sat and watched their reactions.

Rim seemed lost. She likely didn't know what to do without Obito's exuberant mannerisms, without his constant requests for dates… she had lost a friend that she had mistreated in her lifetime, and probably felt guilty as hell. It was in her facial expressions. Obito had had a crush on her, and she continuously turned him down only to have him die like that. It was heartbreaking.

Kakashi was… broken. The boy blamed himself for what occurred with Obito, and it was clear that that was tearing him apart. The cold, aloof attitude that the boy had adopted would either drop or it would intensify. Minato certainly hoped it would not be the latter, as that would likely lead to the boy snapping later on. Just a Minato was about to say something, Kakashi spoke up.

"Sensei… what do I do? His death… it was all my fault."

Minato tried to assuage the boy. "It was not your fault, Kakashi. Stop. Obito sacrificed himself for the village, for you- he gave up his life to give you that Sharingan. Learn the lesson that he tried to teach you- to appreciate life and other poeple. The Will of Fire was strong in him, hopefully now you will take up that torch. "

He bent down to be eye level with the masked boy. "Life isn't just about getting strong, Kakashi. It's about the little things, things Obito knew how to appreciate. It's about your bonds with other people, ones you've been neglecting till now. Obito was a ninja, he knew he could die on that mission. But he wanted to give you some perspective before he passed away."

"Your father was a great man and shinobi, and when he saved his comrades instead of completing the

mission, it was the right thing to do. We are Konoha ninja, and we look after our own."

"Don't train any today, Kakashi. I don't want you to throw yourself into training instead of thinking this

over. Go home and do think it over- make sure you understand what exactly your teammate wanted to teach you."

"Rin, the same goes for you. Remember that he knew what he was going into when he went into the field,

and that casualties happen every day on the field of battle. Grieve for him, but don't let it consume you two."

Both of his students gave him a melancholy nod and went in their separate directions to their homes. They would recover with time, and if either of them needed a little push in the right direction, Minato would be there to give it. He was their sensei, and he would be there for them.

Hopefully they would recover soon, as it was likely Team Minato would be in action again soon, since the war was still on.

* * *

A few weeks later, a new development shook the lab. Strange purple metal was found outside of Iwakagure, that transferred a lot of foul chakra simply through physical contact. It took only a couple of days for the metal to be transferred from the chemistry labs to the human testing facility, to know what exactly the chakra could do.

They had all but given up working on replicating Cell 0351's test subjects' abilities. They knew what the abilities were, and how to trigger them- but actually HOW it happened, they had no idea. He simply showed no outward signs of how it happened, and the best thing to do was to control him- hence the cranial implants that would allow them to control his thoughts.

However, his regenerative capabilities made him the perfect test subject for what the purple metal could do. And it had a LOT of applications. It sped up tissue growth immensely- even without triggering his full restoration transformation, the subject's wounds closed up in a matter of minutes. His lifeforce was supercharged, nearly breaking the chakra restraining seals with the amount of chakra even a small amount of the metal provided. It was amazing.

Judging by how other ninjas reacted to it, the chakra it gave off was supercharged as well, increasing the potency of any jutsu that used it. The metal itself seemed to generate this strange chakra, and it did so no matter how many times it was split up. With the test subject experiencing no visible side effects, this could very well be the tool that Iwa needed to win the war against Konoha. Equipping their ninja armed forces with this would give all of them a large advantage in combat.

Plus, they had the test subject under control now. As soon as experimentation was done, they could send him out into the field in order to help slaughter the enemy. He was an S-rank combatant besides his weakness to genjutsu, and if deployed with ninja that could break genjutsu for him he would be a wrecking ball on the battlefield.

Even outnumbered, the Iwa ninja still had quite a bit of fight left in them. If they could combat the Yellow Flash, they would win- ninja clad in supercharged Earth Armor would likely be able to resist them. Or they could just deploy the test subject against Konoha's army and wait for the Yellow Flash to start the advance.

Overall, Iwa had its invasion force, and it was determined to win this war. Konoha couldn't stand a chance.

* * *

Iwas was on the brink of defeat when it happened- the Yellow Flash had made sure of that- and the Konoha army was already advancing miles into Earth Country, headed straight for Iwa itself.

It was Fugaku's shift when the attack began- he had seen the suddenly encroaching army and alerted his fellow soldiers. Everyone ogt ready- weapons were drawn, handseals were run through. Fugaku steeled himself for the attack ahead. There was no forward intel on this invasion force, but since there were far less men attacking this outpost then there were defending it, it was either a diversion or desperation attack. A messenger bird was sent, warning ahead of the skirmish about to ensue.

Unfortunately for Konoha, a skirmish it was not. Huge purple tidal waves of earth overthrew numerous camps that the frontline had enacted, killing dozens of ninja in the process. The Leaf nin did try to fight while they still had the numbers advantage, however, the combined might of supercharged Earth ninjutsu and a silent berserker pushed them back.

Krieg was cutting a line through the Konoha nin. Whoever fell got into range of axe swings was cleaved in two, their bloody chunks exploding and showering the surroundings with blood and gore. Distant targets that attempted to attack him met received an extremely fast exploding axe in return, which few of them managed to escape. Whenever enough projectiles hit Krieg, he merely transformed and continued swinging his axe. Taijutsu and kinjutsu specialists that foolishly thought they could take advantage of his one effective arm soon met their demise. The homing fireballs did their share of the killing, as well.

The most unnerving part about the entire ordeal was his pervasive silence. He did not scream, he did not grunt, he did not say anything as he massacred Leaf nin left and right. He dodged no projectiles, but even with multiple stab wounds and while aflame he said nothing. It was odd, such a massive beast of a man saying nothing while fighting.

Fugaku recognized the usual ambience of war. Screams of pain and clashing metal and the final sounds of dying men filled the air- the sounds of battle. It was a horrible thing. People died left and right, their bodies and severed limbs littering the battlefield and creating grisly obstacles for the still living. Blood was everywhere; it stained the ground, it stained the boides of the living and the dead, it stained the air with its scent, and it would continue to stain the minds of the survivors long after the battle was over.

Fugaku's sharingan recognized the flying axe headed directly for his head. He ducked down and rolled forward, allowing it to just barely pass over his head and explode harmlessly behind him. Well, he thought it was harmlessly, until the scream of a ninja who had been behind him rung in his ears. Damn, that was close.

The silent monstrosity was coming for him. It was certainly a sight to behold. It was thoroughly drenched and dripping in the blood of those had gotten into swinging distance of its axe, bits of organs decorating its skin in several areas. A little bit of brain matter, even, was left on the strange metallic weapon that it wielded. Still the man remained eerily quiet. It was time to get away- Fugaku doubted he could handle the thing by himself, and everyone else was already beginning to realize the value of a retreat scenario.

The Uchiha just barely managed to dodge another axe by dodging to the side, this time the monster being close enough for the explosion to send him sprawling to the ground instead of rolling. He managed to get up before an Iwa ninja blew up his head with a flying rock while he was incapacitated. Growling to himself and honestly frightened of the monster of a man that had apparently set its sights on killing him, he used the Phoenix Flower jutsu to cover his escape.

In a few minutes, the front line was broken and the Konoha army was ordered into full retreat. Several jutsu were flung to cover their escape, but they were canceled out by the odd-but–powerful purple jutsu that Iwa ninja flung in return. Many Konoha ninja simply couldn't get away and were cut down by Krieg or more Iwa ninja. Would any of them be able to get away at all?

Fugaku wasn't going to die here. He was the Uchiha prodigy, damnit! He was next in line to inherit the clan! He had to become the next Hokage, to put the Uchiha back in their rightful place as the rulers of Konohagakure, ahead of inferior clan and civilian family ninja. He had too much ahead of him to lose it all now.

Making eye contact with the berserker, he cast a genjutsu on him that would make friend look like foe. He doubted that his target would be able to ever break it on his own. The berserker immediately turned on the Iwa ninja closest to him, cutting down the fellow with one fell swoop and blowing the bloody chunks that used to be a person in every direction.

Confusion immediately started running its course in the Iwa ranks. Fugaku smiled. Was that all that was necessary to turn the battle around? He used his Sharingan eyes to dodge another purple spear of earth and impaled the sender through the eye with a kunai. His work here was done. He went off to join the retreat.

* * *

One of the jounin assigned to watch over Krieg saw exactly what had happened, and the seeds of chaos it was sowing in the Iwa ranks. The S-rank beast was supposed to be on their side, and the slaughter machine randomly switching allegiances nearly broke the spirit of the Iwa ninja. The perpetrator of this, the Uchiha that had cast the genjutsu, had fled- while normally the jounin would be happy to chase after him and put an end to another Uchiha, he had bigger fish to fry right now. This was going to be dangerous.

Carefully maneuvering around the beast as to not make a sound and stepping over the pieces of human flesh littering the battleground, the jounin managed to reach the beast's side without alerting him. He placed his hands on the beasts' body and broke the genjutsu just as the beast killed an Iwa chuunin. Because of this, the Iwa jounin did not get much of a chance to celebrate his success- the explosion of blood that the chuunin turned in to destroyed the jounin in short order.

But he had done his job, and now Krieg was under full control of the implants again. The raid commander stopped the confusion within the ranks with one barked order, and the clearing was silent for the first time since the battle began.

"The monster has been put under control once more. Press on and use your metal, our orders are that none of the Konoha ninja escape."

All of the ninja present reached into their pouches to receive another power boost from the strange purple metal. It was time to hunt themselves some Leaf nin.

* * *

Fugaku and the surviving Konohagakure ninja were all on their way back to their village and safety when the ground began to shake. A gigantic purple wall of Earth sprung up in front of them, blocking the path forward. Fugaku cursed. How the hell did the Iwa ninja catch up to them? How the hell did they make a wall that huge?

None of the hastily thrown jutsu by the Leaf nin could put a sizable dent in the wall, so most of them did the only thing they could at that point- start running up the wall to get away from their pursuers.

The Earth nin, though, were prepared. Traveling underground and sinking into the wall, they began to pull their unsuspecting victims into the dirt, trapping them there. A secondary set of ninja pursued directly up the wall, executing the unfortunate Leaf nin that had gotten ensnared in the Underground Decapitation jutsu.

Then Krieg arrived, and the opposing ninja's chances of escape disappeared. The thrown axes were deadly accurate and almost impossible to dodge. Fugaku lifted his eyes in order to perhaps cast another genjutsu on the berserker in a vain hope to escape, but what greeted him was a thrown axe far too close in his face to dodge. Fugaku watched in desperation as the axe, moving in slow motion, approached his body, right up until the point where it pierced his skull and scattered the contents back down onto the Earth.

Fugaku, the Uchiha prodigy, was now dead.

The battle was lost, and the tables of the war had turned.

* * *

Within the Hokage's office, the Sandaime rubbed his temples in frustration. What was going on?! First, a massive base of operations from which the march on Iwa was to be made from had disappeared. The only clue was a messenger pigeon sent to another nearby outpost warning of a small attacking party onto their position. Iwa shouldn't have the men or resources to orchestrate an attack of the magnitude that could come close to destroying that camp.

Then, apparently, that "small force" that had killed a huge number of Konoha ninja began to march on Konoha itself. That was, needless to say, extremely dangerous. All available ninja were recalled and sent to stop the incursion, but they were all repelled. The last party to attack the Iwa ninja had a survivor, though, and he wrote a report of what he had seen. The Sandaime reviewed it again.

The large group of ninjas this chuunin was a part of had attacked the enemy using the element of surprise to great effect, managing to eliminate almost the entirety of the rear guard of the enemy. From there, though, the Iwa ninja reached into their pouches and started casting inexplicably strong jutsu, ripping through the Konoha ranks and overpowering them with a barrage of ninjutus. Almost as bad, the monster that had been sighted causing lots of death in Kusa had somehow been converted to join Iwa's army. Minato had previously reported that that was an impossible task!

Gritting his teeth in frustration, the most powerful man in the Village Hidden in the Leaves issued an order for all his ANBU to deploy pigeons to all available nearby outposts- they would organize a defense of Konoha, and damnit if they weren't going to succeed. Perhaps Iwa had found some strange power that they would try to carry them into winning the war, but what they didn't have was the Will of Fire. Konoha would endure.

* * *

It only took a few days for the battle of Konoha to begin in earnest. It was unlike any other invasion the village had ever experienced. The walls, which Konoha put so much stock in, were broken by but a few jutsu from the relatively small force of Iwa ninja. They poured into the city, all supporting the berserker with instant genjutsu breaking and very powerful ninjutsu support. The enemy moved as one, making it vulnerable enough for area of effect jutsu, but the few that were fired off did not do much damage since almost all of the enemy were utilizing some sort of Earth armor technique.

Like the battles that preceded it, the battle of Konoha started out as a one-sided slaughter. Unable to truly damage the Iwa ninja, the Konoha ninja flung ineffectual jutsu after jutsu at them. Those attempting to close the distance in order to use taijutsu on the group soon found themselves on the receiving end of the berserker's axe. The Iwa ninja left a trail of blood and destruction in their wake, but they were careful not to damage any structures unnecessarily- after all, this was a war of conquest, not destruction.

Minato and the Hokage joined the battle soon enough, and that changed the game entirely. The HOkage's opening ninjutsu were strong enough to break through the front line of the enemy, killing quite a few of the unprepared enemy. A second assault from the Hokage found its way to the silent berserker, who was sent flying into a local restaurant. Good thing the civilians were all underground, Konoha having anticipated this attack.

Minato began peppering the area with Hiraishin kunai, preparing for another bout of teleportation like he did in the battle that earned him the title of the Yellow Flash. He would need the Rasengan for this, obviously; the armor of the enemy was too thick for Minato to simply slit the throat of the enemy like he did in that first battle.

What Minato couldn't understand, however, was why Krieg was fighting on the Earth nin's side, and why he was silent. After all, the inner voice that the man seemed to possess appeared to be trustworthy, and wouldn't turn on the promise he had made. The bloodthirsty side, of course, didn't care what it slaughtered. Why wasn't it attacking its allies?

And why was Krieg silent? All of the times that Minato had seen him fight, the man was very loud- he screamed nonsense and death threats at the top of his lungs while in combat, accompanied by a symphony of screams and cackling. Here, he was utterly silent even as he slaughtered his foes. Minato decided to call out to him.

"Krieg, what are you doing? Why are you fighting Konoha nin?"

Predictably, Krieg made no effort to respond. Minato narrowed his eyes. The man was clearly under the effect of some sort of genjutsu or other method of mind control. Minato supposed he wouldn't mind having to kill him.

Other Konoha nin now were joining the struggle now that the two most powerful men in the village were fighting. An intense battle ensued, with the Hokage flinging jutsu after jutsu at individual enemies, picking them off. Minato began using Hiraishin to teleport between eneies, using Rasengan to pierce their chests before moving on to the next one. The new arrivals of Konoha ninja did their best to assist, as well. The numbers of the enemy were starting to dwindle drastically.

Then Kreig with one massive arm re-entered the battle with a massive leap to Minato's head, which the latter Hiraishined out of. It was time to see if he could actually beat the seemingly indestructible monster.

* * *

The Tsuchikage, Oonoki, knew that the initial assault would probably fail. He had organized the rest of his men (those who had not participated in the initial metal-fueled charge) and followed those who had. When they quietly arrived, they saw the Earth and Leaf nin locked in mortal combat, and the Hokage now resorting to using his staff to beat back the monster they had counted on to be the center of the assault. Very unfortunately, it seemed the Yellow Flash was there as well, wreaking havoc among his troops with that damnable Hiraishin.

Oonoki commanded his men to attack while he himself hid, readying a Dust Release spear. Soon, he would impale either the Hokage or the Yellow Flash- one of them would fall to it, and which one would would be determined by whoever presented the first opportunity.

The opportunity presented itself a few seconds later as the Hokage locked his staff in a struggle stop the monster's axe from reaching his body. Oonoki saw the Hokage's muscles tense as the Sandaim prepared to jump back and probably cast a jutsu. Carefully calculating the trajectory of the jump, Oonoki sent the spear flying.

* * *

Minato had just eviscerated another Earth ninja when he noticed exactly what just happened. He nearly got his head cut off from the shock of seeing his Hokage pierced through the chest with a strange sort of spear. He recognized that spear- it was made of Dust Release, by now only wielded by the Tsuchikage. Minato didn't have to think or grieve- he had to stop his troops from breaking rank and running as soon as they saw their fallen Kage.

"Keep fighting everyone! The Hokage may have fallen, but we can still protect our home! Remember the Will of Fire!"

Minato's hastily thrown-together words fell on deaf ears as Krieg recovered and blew open the incapacitated Hokage with his axe. The Leaf ninja broke rank and ran into the city streets, and instantly Minato knew that the battle was lost.

Kushina had not arrived yet- Minato had to go get her. While he would give his life for his village, he knew that there was nothing more he could do with both Krieg and the Tsuchikage there to reinforce the assault alongside fresh troops.

Minato tried not to think about the implications of this as he Hiraishin'ed away. He had not given up on his village, not by a long shot, he told himself…

The battle of Konoha would take another several hours as shinobi attempted to fight off the invading army in their streets. Several of the village's more prominent ninja would attempt to mount ever more desperate defenses alongside their allies- not all fought bravely, but the village was lost either way.

Konoha had been captured.


	3. I CAN'T BREATHE IN THIS

AN: Apologies for the short chapter, I felt I just needed to push something out before people thought this was dead.

Thanks for all the positive reviews, guys. They inspired me to keep writing.

Next chapter will be back to normal size, but on an every three days posting schedule.

* * *

Minato met with Kushina just as the woman was returning from her mission to end the bandit clan that had decided to use the war as a cover to mug merchants on their way to and from Fire Country. She had been tree hopping back when Minato's Hiraishin kunai activated, placing him inside her kunai pouch and ripping the container open, sending all of the weapons that had been inside tumbling to the ground.

Several emotions flashed through Kushina's mind- her first response was naturally anger at her lost pouch and him interrupting her while she was still technically on a mission- but she settled on worried when she saw how serious the man was.

"What happened dear? Why are you here?"

"Konoha has lost the war to Iwagakure- the Hokage has fallen and they have two S-rank ninja along with an army of supercharged ninja. We need to leave and regroup with those also fleeing the village."

"Minato, are you serious? This isn't one of your jokes, is it?" Kushina asked hopefully, already knowing the answer.

Minato shook his head gravely, "of course not- come on, you already know that."

"Then why did you run away, you idiot?! We have to protect Konoha to the death!"

It took a little while, but Minato eventually managed to convince his hot-headed girlfriend that rushing in to assist a doomed defense would more likely than not get them both killed for nothing.

"Kushina, it's much more prudent to organize the survivors of the battle who did not stay in the village and set-up a government-in-exile. Trust me, we have contingency plans for this scenario, we have contingencies for every scenario. Of course, we didn't plan on the Hokage dying, but we have a chain of command for this. We can join the resistance from the gathering point near the Fire Country border."

She looked at him and nodded.

"Alright then, you have convinced me. Let's go."

* * *

The Hyuuga elders and children- those not participating in the street fighting- were busy packing. News had spread fast that the Hokage had fallen and the village was being abandoned as lost. As with every clan, the higher-ups of the Hyuuga knew exactly what that entailed. It meant moving to Anzen, the little town that bordered Fire Country and the Land of Hot Springs. It meant that they needed to pack up all of their ancestral secrets and move them to a little sleepy village which could barely support their presence, living off of bare minimums. It meant defeat, however temporary or permanent that defeat might be.

Few people hated Iwa as much as the clans of Konohagakure at that moment, especially since a lot of their members were currently being killed by Iwa ninja. Someone had to cover the escape of the secret bearers, after all. Unfortunately for the Hyuuga clan in particular, the Earth nin had a particular interest in their secrets.

The gate protecting the Hyuuga estate literally began sinking into the now-purple ground as several enemy shinobi leapt over the walls in order to assault the Hyuuga complex. Some of Iwa's top ninja were on the case, so prioritized was that particular attack.

The people remaining to defend the Hyuuga homes fought fiercely. Unfortunately for them, their enemy had planned ahead and sent almost exclusively ninjutsu specialists, what with Hyuuga being unstoppable in taijutsu and so proficient at breaking genjutsu. So proud in their ancestral art of the Jyuuken they were that they didn't bother learning anything but the most basic of ninjutsu, and now the ranged fight that the Earth nin were turning it into made them pay for that.

They simply couldn't close the distance on those flinging jutsu of four elements at them (wind, in particular, was absent, due to its rarity in the Land of Earth). The Hyuuga elders and children also couldn't run as fast as the fit ninja who opposed them, and the Air Palm technique proved mostly ineffective against the sheer quantity and variety of ninjutsu firing.

Most of the Hyuuga were dead or otherwise incapacitated within a few minutes. The leader of the attack walked over to a bleeding elder of the Hyuuga clan, who was missing one of his percious arms and was currently bleeding out on the ground. He looked at the approaching figure with silent defiance.

"You! What are the secrets of the Caged Bird Seal?" The raid leader backed up with words by kneeling on one knee and pressing a kunai fairly close to the left of the Hyuuga's Byakugan eyes.

"Hah, you fool,-" here the elder coughed up some blood, "you'll never find out any of the Hyuuga's secrets." He proceeded to spit in the Iwa nin's eye, for which he lost his own as the blade pressed downward a little. Still, the Hyuuga showed no weakness despite the overwhelming pain he must have been in.

"Tell me or I'll take your remaining arm next." When silence greeted the Earth ninja, he easily sliced down and mutilated his prisoner's body some more.

"You got a family, old man?" Looking out to one of the jounin standing by at his side, he said, "Go check if the children have been rounded up yet. Bring those already captured to me. This filthy Leaf nin will crack yet."

The children brought out, roped together chain gang style. The younger ones were crying, and many of the older ones were holding back tears. Eldest had a few wounds, likely from their attempts to resist the older Earth ninja.

Crouching down, the raid leader brought his face close to the defiant Hyuuga's remaining eye. "You WILL give us the information we seek, because I know you have it." Standing up and turning around to face one of his lieutenants, he ordered, "Remove the first one's ears."

The child's screams and the blood pouring copiously down from his skull seemed to momentarily faze the old man, who turned off his Byakugan and closed his eyes in response to the torture. There was nothing he could do for those children. If they were killed, it was better than being put into service for Iwa.

The jounin in charge of the raid began ordering the mutilation of other children in various ways, until the entire area was coated in a cacophony of the screams and sobs of children who were never getting their body parts, or their innocence, back. Even the Iwa ninja began to grow uncomfortable, used to the horrors of war but not this wanton cruelty to children. They were not part of the Torture and Interrogation department for a reason, the lead Iwa ninja thought to himself.

Finally, the elder Hyuuga opened his eyes and croaked out a feeble "Stop…"

The sadistic raid leader turned his attention to his target. "Finally ready to give up the information?"

"Yes, please… just stop hurting the children."

Unfortunately for the Hyuuga youngsters, several of the Iwa higher-ups requested Byakugan eyes, enough that the aged eyes of the Hyuuga elders were not cutting it in sheer quantity.

The sick bastard at the head of the raid on the Hyuuga clan compound smiled.

* * *

"Krieg…. Krieg…. Krieg… WAKE UP YOU DAMN PSYCHO!"

The inner personality's attempts to reach his dominant side were even more fruitless than usual, seeing as the intended recipient of his voice was nowhere to be found. Krieg's original personality had woken up just about half an hour ago, to find him slaughtering his way through people with the same headband as Minato. He wasn't doing this of his own free will, he quickly discovered, as the dominant personality was currently dormant. Something else was controlling his actions.

He soon found out what that something else was when he heard the orders directed at him from a man in the same headband as the people he had agreed to kill for Minato. So this was the result of his detainment in that laboratory-prison…

He was not ok with this, not at all. He hated not being in control of his own body when his psychotic side was in control, but he had a voice there. A way to direct the violence toward the deserving, or at least those who had fought and killed before. At least it was the psychotic side of him that he was trying to influence, not a completely different person (even if it felt that way sometimes). It was not so with this foreign control- he felt like he was watching a movie out of a nightmare, where his body was killing lots of people without his say or opinion in it. It frightened and frustrated him beyond words.

So, why had he awoken? If the scientists who had captured him found a way to shut off his consciousness and control him, why would he awake here, in the middle of battle? Was the control wearing off? Did that mean his dominant personality awake soon? Would it be in control of the body if it did so?

He watched in silent horror as a kunai hit him square in the forehead- a wound that should have killed any normal man, and he performed the transformation without any volition of his own whatsoever. Their control of his body extended deeper than he thought.

As his body continued to slaughter the newfound enemy- not mindful at all what the target was, as long as it had that headband with the Leaf on it, Krieg continued to think about freedom and what it would take to escape.

* * *

Orochimaru, for his part, was finding the invasion of Konoha to be… inconvenient, at worst. He had already been thinking of leaving Konoha to focus on his experiments. The narrow-minded fools that were his higher-ups would immediately confiscate and use the metal for their own, simple chakra boosting purposes were they to find it. Orochimaru was beginning to discover that it could do so much more in his laboratory with Kabuto. The chakra it gave off had strange and wonderful properties, and the metal itself… if properly harnessed, the nigh indestructible stuff could be perhaps even used on the path to immortality…

What really annoyed Orochimaru was that Iwagakure had found and was making use of the metal. They obviously couldn't see its potential, if they were making use of it for simple boosting of chakra and jutsu. The blasted fools..! If Orochimaru had access to a supply as great as that, his experiments could be sped up manifold! Perhaps there was a way to collect more of it from the battleground…

His scientific supplies, the important ones at least, were already in the Land of Rice Fields. He had little to lose by leaving his experiments here- sure, it would tarnish his good name within the village, but the village was going to lose its autonomy soon anyway. Perhaps he could start his own out in the Land of Rice Fields…

But yes, he had certainly nothing to move out of the village. In that case, he could loot the Earth ninja dead for their metal, as the more metal he had the more progress he would make. Once upon a time, maybe he would have moral qualms with that, but certainly not anymore. They would fuel his power, his progress… He would reach immortality.

And then, the world would bow.

* * *

Konohagakure had fallen, and its surviving troops were gathered in the village called for in the contingency plan, Anzen. They would soon have to move because Iwa would torture the location out of SOMEBODY and then come for them here- however, for the time being, they would use this location. The assembled ninja numbered about one thousand, less than a third of Konoha's total troops before the invasion. The resistance was off to a very bad start- hugely outnumbered and outclassed with the strange purple powers that Iwa now had access to.

Nevertheless, Koharu and Homura were still alive, since as retired shinobi they oversaw strategy instead of actively fighting. They were the ones that led whatever survivors they could find through the secret passage into Anzen. The assorted shinobi forces were not exactly what they wished for. There were too many old shinobi retirees, most of them crippled, that had stayed to fight but had to get going when the going got rough, so to speak. They were probably not going to be pressed into active combat anymore- they would be the ones directing the combat. Unfortunately, that left even less combat capable ninja in their pool of available warriors.

The other survivors were who one would expect to survive the battle. A lot of jounin and ANBU, with a few chuunin interspersed throughout the group. A pitiful amount of genin survived; they were generally taken care of quickly in order to prevent any surprise kills and deplete the enemy forces.

Minato had arrived a couple of days ago, along with his "friend" Kushina. It was a very good sign, since that meant that they had at least one S-rank shinobi on their hands. It meant that they had a very important weapon- Minato had Hiraishin seals all over the village and could teleport to them on a whim. For retaking the village, that would a highly important power.

Speaking of S-rank ninja, where was Orochimaru? Danzo Shimura, his superior, was here, alive and well- in fact, Koharu and Homura were just consulting with him- but he didn't know where the former Sannin had gone during the invasion. He HAD been acting rather odd lately; hopefully he hadn't gone all the way and betrayed the village in a time of crisis. Missing an S-rank ninja when they needed all the firepower they could get stung quite a bit.

In terms of allies, they had but a couple of small countries and the far weaker Sunagakure. They could ask for military assistance, but the request would now be either outright denied or a token force would be sent. Such was the way of the world; people clung to you when you were strong but left you for dead when you were weak. At least they could rely on the promise of recovery in order to maybe coax out a few ninja from their so-called allies.

In terms of their chances of actually recapturing the village, it depended on how well Iwa was holding it. Of course, if Iwa sent too many troops to Konoha, Iwa itself was highly likely to be invaded- there was little chance of Iwa risking that. In fact, they should barely have the troops to hold it captive at all. Konoha ninja naturally held the home field advantage there, and therefore Iwa would normally need superior numbers to hold the village. However, they had that strange purple power on each of their ninja, and it would be terribly difficult to accurately judge how many ninjas they would need to overpower that odd boost.

It was time to play the game of reconnaissance and subterfuge. Even here the Hiraishin had a great many uses- all they had to do was disguise Minato and send him into the village to find out vital information. Patrols routes and other such bits of info useful to an invasion could be obtained by him teleporting into information stores. They could conceivably keep them in Iwagakure, but it would be impractical. The documents would be stored in Konoha, always within easy reach of Minato's teleportation. They would have to have a hell of a lot of guards to him from simply killing them and being on his way. The Konoha ninja would be in a tight spot indeed should they not have had Minato.

Now, it was time to announce to the gathered public their intentions. They were all ragged and weary, having run had to run the entire way to Anzen. They were demoralized and hadn't had time to settle in yet. That was good- at least they would be easier to move. They needed a speech to rouse them, and Koharu intended to give them one.

"Ninja of Konohagakure! Our home is lost, but our power- our Will of Fire, as our Hokage always said- is not lost. We are the people of fire, and will not be doused by this. We have not given up on our village, and we never will! Iwa may think they've won, but we will come back stronger than ever- stronger than them, armed with the power of the Leaf- and we will teach them to fear our name once more. We will reclaim our home and burn theirs to the ground for what they have done! Glory to Konoha! Glory to its people! Glory to the Will of Fire!"

The clapping and shouts of "yeah!" were enthusiastic, but exhausted. Homura assigned some watchmen for shifts throughout the night, and they would raid the base of operations here for ninja supplies and leave in the morning to set up camp in a spot where the Iwa nin search parties would not find them.

The village would be theirs again. They just needed to put some effort into it.

* * *

Oonoki, dressed in his Tsuchikage robes, sat and thought about the future of his village with the end of the Third Shinobi War. He sat on a cloud of Dust Release and meditated on his thoughts.

Even as news of the massive turnaround and unprecedented conquering of a Hidden Leaf Village reverberated across the Elemental Nations, Iwakagakure's higher-ups were busy organizing the new defense routines of both Iwa and Konoha. If they were not adequately prepared, one of the other villages- even the Hidden Sand- might start a Fourth Shinobi War to get at two different weakened Hidden Villages.

However, the Hidden Rock had a plan. They had already retrieved the Caged Bird Seal from the damn Hyuuga that had previously caused them so many problems, and retrieved a great amount of their eyes for their troops. They did the same to the Uchiha, but the Cgaed Bird Seal was of the real interest here. It would allow them to keep about half of their Iwa forces in the Hidden Rock and the Hidden Leaf, and support that army with sealed Konoha ninja. The latter could hardly resist, when a single handseal could put them into so much pain and kill them.

Getting all of the remaining Konoha ninja sealed was proving to be problematic. Lots of ninja preferred death to servitude, and the several of the more experienced fought to the death, costing Iwa time and lives. The berserker couldn't be used for this, since all of his attacks killed, and thus they were done on their most powerful disposable fighting force for that matter.

Estimates said that about a third of the Konoha's fighting force pre-invasion on their side once the process was over. They were at their most vulnerable right now, and too many ninja were already celebrating their victory and relaxing. A good deal of Konoha's army had retreated, and was hiding out there somewhere in the wilderness. There was an army on the doorstep of their newly conquered territory, and they needed to reinforce, quickly.

And that was the problem. How could they speed up the process of branding the Konoha ninja? Rebuilding and arming the village's defenses couldn't begin until all of the enemy within the village was sealed or dead, and by the time they start building defenses it might be too late.

As Oonoki sat and though, the alarm went off. Something critical had gone wrong, and it was his duty as Tchukiage to right it. He jumped off of the wrecked head of the Sandaime down to the village.

What greeted him was an odd masked Uchiha nearly impaling him through his side. Apparently, he had been waiting for Oonoki to head downward. He was wearing the old sort of Shinobi armor, the kind rarely used anymore. The mask was an odd swirl with a hole in the center.

"You may not, proceed, _Tsuchikage-sama,_" the man said, spitting out the last word very sarcastically.

"Who the hell are you? You think you can stop me from getting to the emergency?"

"You don't need to know who I am. Time to die, old man."

And Oonoki exploded into black flames before he could react.

* * *

Krieg's dominant personality awoke to a deep rage, and the sight of a single red eye staring at him. They had an odd design in them, and the rest of the person's face was covered by a mask. In another instant, the rage evaporated, and the need to escape his confines awoke in him. Krieg's original personality frowned inwardly. What kind of hypnotic suggestion was this?

In the next instant, the red-eyed person disappeared, leaving Krieg surrounded by a number of orpses with his enemy's headbands on their foreheads. It was obvious he didn't do the killing- none of them even had any damaged clothing or visible wounds. Had that masked person done this? Why had he been freed? He HAD teleported away. Maybe it was Minato? Wait, Minato didn't have red eyes…

And these people around him weren't dead, merely knocked unconscious. He could notice the steady rising and falling of their chests when he looked closely. Naturally, his dominant personality raised his buzz axe and killed them all in a Bloodsplosion chain. Man, that was a useful ability…

So now it was time to escape. Where could he go? He didn't know this village, and rampaging through it to find an exit would likely signal to all of the combatants here that he was loose. In fact, there was a siren blaring overhead, announcing his presence. He was so screwed.

But then again, maybe he wasn't. A mind map of the village suddenly materialized in his head (probably courtesy of the masked individual who freed him), and he knew exactly where to go from here to find the main gate. Unfortunately, he would probably be beset by enemies the entire way. In fact, he could see them watching from the rooftops now.

They didn't move, though, and Krieg realized his dominant personality sensed their fear. They wouldn't approach without someone powerful enough subdue him. There seemed to be an enemy making weird signs with their hands like the last couple of times he fought in this world, but nothing appeared to be happening.

His dominant personality was going to fight, he could tell. There was little he could do to stop the rising bloodlust now. The atmosphere seemed thoroughly soaked in it, Krieg's madness and desire to kill quite clear. The hostiles around were ready to make a break for it, but the buzz axe already found the head of the first unlucky target, who exploded in a shower of blood and gore. They began a full retreat through the rooftops, and Krieg was about to go after him when he stopped.

The imperative implanted in his mind to leave the village was too strong. He couldn't honestly resist it. He began running toward the exit, past all of the damage buildings and one that his mind identified as the Hokage's Tower (how did he know that?). The main gate was straight ahead, and closed. He launched an exploding buzz axe at it and walked right through.

* * *

Orochimaru was fighting, currently busy relieving multiple lesser ninja of their purple metal fragments. He performed this task quite handily, since he had a rather large chunk he was using to boost himself as well. The Earth ninja did not stand a chance against HIS empowered jutsu…

It was while he was fighting in his secluded portion of the rooftops (he had a limit to how many weaklings he could dispatch at once, even in this state, and he didn't want to draw the attention of the Tsuchikage. That would be annoying) that he noticed the large man walking past. The damaged Iwagakure armor caught his eye, sure, and so did that mask and the weapon- but the strangest thing was that the metal seemed to react to his presence. That piqued his curiousity greatly. If he could get that man in his lab to study, it could assist his experiments greatly.

He dispatched the last of his adversaries with a Fire Dragon jutsu and didn't even wait for their charred corpses to hit the ground before jumping away. The building caught aflame and the fire spread quickly and easily with so few people available to monitor it. Konoha began to burn from the jutsu of one its own former ninja, now a traitor to the Leaf.

Orochimaru thought he could sneak up well, but the strange weapon flew at his face at a speed he almost couldn't dodge. It… exploded behind him, sending shrapnel everywhere. He jumped to dodge an another axe, and then another- how did it keep re-appearing in his hands? Very… very interesting.

"You have a very interesting affinity with this purple metal…"

Krieg's inner personality was taken aback.

"(You're interested in Eridium?)"

Orochimaru licked his lips. "So that's what it is called, eh? I… appreciate your cooperation. Perhaps I could interest you in coming with me?"

His response was yet another flying axe and a charge. He simply substituted with an Earth Clone- as he had suspected, his target's attacks were more than enough to destroy the Earth Clone in one go. He smirked. This was going to be fun.

* * *

What powers does young Orochimaru have? I don't actually know. Let them fight on-screen when the series actually starts.


End file.
